Dear Doctor,

I am Director of Special Education for our local high school district. I know that you have written about teens and onset of mental illness before at this web site. Recently I have been hearing about “TAY” programs for late teens and early adulthood youth with mental illness. I know that some of our counties here in California are starting such programs and would like to know what they provide and if we should think about having such a program in our district.

Curious

Answer:

Dear Curious,

TAY stands for “transitional age youth” and is the term that some communities are using for innovative programs that provide comprehensive services for youth age 16 to 24 with significant mental illness. This age group is targeted since this is the age of onset of significant mental illness.

In California, Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, was passed in November 2004 and was intended to provide significant mental health reform with 1% tax funding for those earning over 1 million dollars. A link below describes this act and the planning and services that have been. and will be implemented. They have designated priorities to funding projects.

Of particular interest is the programs that pertain to school based mental health services including training of school personnel about mental illness. Special education students, as you know, are particularly vulnerable to mental illness both from hereditary and environment.

Marin County established a TAY program this last year. San Francisco has a MHSA grant and is planning services to extend the TAY program in their county. These are initial pilot programs and are models for providing more comprehensive mental health services in both the public and private sectors.

Marin’s pilot program gives full “wrap around” services to a maximum of 20 youth. There are currently 17 full participants in the program. They are individualized services and may include:

• Housing
• Outreach and engagement services
• Case management
• 24 hour response to client and family
• Peer mentoring
• Employment and education support
• Family counseling
• Family partnership
• Treatment for co-occurring substance use
• Health education and coordination
• Individualized service plans
• Medication prescribing, monitoring and management
• Use of evidence based practices
• Recreation and social activities
• Classes on community living skills

The advisory board includes the local high school district special education director as well as community representatives of various agencies such as Family Services Agency, mental health program and housing authorities and community college counseling representative.

Below are several links to the Mental Health Services Act, and descriptions of model programs in the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as several places in the United States. In California such projects are at University of Californians’ Davis, San Francisco and San Diego.

I hope that you find this information helpful and will be as excited as I am about the development and implementation of such needed programs.

Sincerely,

Kay
Kay S. Browne MD, Behavioral Pediatrician

Websites:

http://www.dmh.cahwnet.gov/Prop_63/MHSA/default.asp

http://www.rethink.org/

http://www.schizophrenia.com/earlypsychosis.htm